[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Sumac Prairie page.]

I don’t visit Sumac Prairie often – usually just a few times a year.  It’s difficult to get there to work – it’s a steep climb up from the bottom, or a steep walk up the back of the bluff through a brushy woods and an overgrown field.  Driving there involves asking permission from our neighbor to drive on one of his trails.

This year I visited once in the spring, to see the results of some mowing/mulching that Erik from Kule Region Forestry did last fall.  He used a big mulching machine to cut small trees and bushes out of the savanna area below the bluff prairie.   Since it was cut but not treated with herbicide, it’s growing back.  We’re hoping either Erik and Beth or I will get back to it soon to cut and treat the sprouts.  Eventually I hope to thin out the trees in this area to restore it to a savanna.

I always visit in the fall to look for Northern Flower Moths.  They fly for about a week in early September on the main bluff prairie.   While I’m there, I do some cutting and treating of sumac and other brush.  The lower part of the bluff prairie is looking better every year – more open, less brushy.  I’m slowly working my way up the slope.  Soon I’ll be high enough that it may be easier to start working down from the top.

4/17/2023

4/17/2023

4/20/2023

5/25/2023  Overgrown savanna below the bluff prairie – after Erik’s mowing

5/25/2023  More of the mowed savanna.  This part has a big patch of Garlic Mustard.  I sprayed all of it that I could find but it will have to be monitored every spring.  There are small areas of Garlic Mustard throughout this savanna.

5/25/2023  More of the mowed/ mulched area

5/25/2023  More of the mulched/mowed area, looking up into the bluff prairie

5/25/2023  Looking back into the mulched area from just below the bluff prairie

5/25/2023  The lower more open part of the bluff prairie.  In the last few years I’ve cut and treated sumac, grape vines and Gray Dogwood here.

5/25/2023  More of the open bluff prairie.  This is the lowest part – just above the savanna.

9/10/2023  Late summer view of the mowed/mulched area under the trees below the prairie

9/10/2023  Higher in the bluff prairie – the beginning of the area that needs cutting and treating – mostly of sumac, some Gray Dogwood, and some Rubus sp.  Beyond and above this open part is one of the thick stands of Sumac and Gray Dogwood.

9/10/2023  After cutting and treating

9/10/2023  The top of the open part of the bluff prairie.  Here there are small trees and large bushes of Black Cherry, Buckthorn, Honeysuckle and sumac.  I stand below them, cut and treat the stems, and roll piles of the largest cuttings down the hill to the edge of the woods.

9/17/2023  This is one of the sumac and Gray Dogwood thickets – before cutting.

9/17/2023  The edge of the thicket before cutting.

9/17/2023  After cutting.   The edges of the thicket are less dense so I can just drop most of the cut brush on the ground.  Once I get to the denser part of the thicket I drag or roll piles of it down the hill so it doesn’t smother the prairie plants.

9/17/2023  Another view of cut sumac

9/17/2023  Another view of the open hillside.  The small trees are Black Cherry.  I girdled two of them with the chainsaw and squirted the girdles with herbicide.

9/17/2023  A Northern Flower Moth on Sky Blue Aster.  This year I found 3 individuals.

9/17/2023  Northern Flower Moth

9/17/2023  Northern Flower Moth on Silky Aster

9/25/2023  A drone photo showing Sumac Prairie (on the right), the band of overgrown savanna below it, then Sheep Hill Bluff Prairie, then the Maze Meadow.

12/3/2023

12/15/2023